It is good to buy things. We want to give presents, to make others happy or show them our love. The shopping today is a little beyond my ken, though; too many jostling people for my neo-autistic self. But I harbor no bad feelings for those who enjoy it.

The things I most desire I cannot purchase. The person I want to be I cannot buy. The future I hope for my family has no price.The marriage I strive for lacks a tag or return policy.

Today I am going to ignore the newspaper. Glad tidings of the day to Althouse and her kin, and to her many readers here.

I feel the same way and I call it mallphobia. Too many people to look at, too many threats to assess, sensory overload, targets get lost in the ground clutter. I become light headed and unable to concentrate on my mission. If my spousal unit requires a lengthy stay I have to sit on the bench in the middle of the mall with the other old men. If you talk about mallphobia a lot you can often avoid these dreaded excursions. Your superior may grant you a hardship reassignment and allow you to mow grass or shovel snow instead.

What's the secret for a good turkey soup, MadisonMan? A lot of chicken broth? :) I'm seriously asking, because I've got to make soup, too...and I haven't really liked my prior attempts at turkey soup.

I'll spend money today, probably by taking my son and his cousins to the movies. No shopping for me.I don't mind crowds, if I'm sitting and people-watching, but actually trying to shop amongst the crowd is not me.

I just boil the carcass for a couple hours to extract everything that can be extracted from the bones, skin, leftover meat, etc. Refrigerate and then skim off the fat, and then add any meat back in, plus carrots and wide noodles. That's what works for me.

Sometimes I boil onions and garlic with the carcass, but we didn't have any in the house last night.

Take pliers to the larger bones of the turkey carcass to break them open, this ensures the maximum marrow is extracted. In your largest pot, boil in six to eight cups of water the carcass and everything that came with the turkey, everything ordinarily discarded. The neck, the gizzard, the liver, the skin, all the tiny bones, wing tips, everything.

Boil for about an hour, possibly more. Until the vegetables go soft, until the kitchen is filled with the odor of cooked turkey.

Strain first through a colander, then through a strainer.

Chill, a tall container is best. Remove most of the layer of fat that forms a disc at the top. Leave whatever amount of fat you want your broth to retain. You're looking for gelatinous aspic that informs of your success.

This broth, liquid gold to cooks, is the basis, or stock, for your soup. Dice onion, carrots, and celery (mirepoix) in the size you want to see on a spoon. and saute. Add turkey bits and diced potato, and of course, your turkey stock.

Darcy, I forgot to mention, when you first bring all that stuff to a boil, some brown protein foam forms. You can remove that foam by skimming. If it boils back into the broth it's not catastrophic but tends to give the broth some bitterness, at least that's what some cooks say.

I just fixed myself a huge plate of leftovers only to find that the person in charge of getting our leftovers together from the relatives' house did not abscond with any turkey! No turkey! I have a huge container of cranberry sauce, and a huge container of gravy but no turkey! I have stuffing, broccoli rice, corn pudding, and brisket, but no turkey!

I called the relatives to see if any turkey was left to be had. Score! I will pick it up later. (They don't like Thanksgiving leftovers very much over there.)

This Thanksgiving I discovered that one of my favorite dishes, faithfully cooked by a certain relative each year, contains, among many other things, Cheez Whiz! Who knew? I've never purchased Cheez Whiz in my life, and I've never seen my parents purchase it either. So today I salute Cheez Whiz, the humble ingredient annually served in a truly delicious holiday side dish.

Downsized Christmas this year -- or so I tell myself. Local Wal-Mart had a couple things I realized would save me some money if I picked them up this morning. Figured when I woke up I'd go out and get them. If they were sold out, no big whoop.

Woke up after 5, wandered over to the store around 6. Picked up a couple other things cheap (flash drives, memory cards) for stocking stuffers...

Saved about $100.

I am not a Black Friday shopper historically. This is the first time I've been up and out quite that early. (Last time I tried that daughter and I were aiming for 7 am and my car died in the parking lot of the first store ...)

Down here in the South they had people outside Best Buy sleeping in camping tents. (They must have really wanted those big screen TVs...)

Actually I see great things in catalogs (still get those -- like the tactal stuff pages give off to my fingers) and decided I would cut them out, mount them on card stock, and give the picture to my family members and friends. We'll have a a virtual Christmas this year, right? ;-)